Various tools exist to allow video game players to play online multiplayer games in real time whereby a plurality of video game players distributed over a network interact within the same video game at the same time. Furthermore, there are tools that exist for non-playing users to watch the game and broadcast their view of the game along with commentary. These non-playing users are referred to as “hosts” or “casters” and their broadcast is a casting of the game. Many third parties can tune in and watch the casted games via websites such as Twitch® and YouTube®.
Unfortunately for the third-party viewers, the cinematographic quality of the broadcast is often very poor with respect to camera stability, shot composure, camera cuts, and more. The casters often have no training in cinematography and have very limited tools at their disposal for capturing the game action. The most popular tool is a camera controlled by a computer mouse, but this tool often provides choppy visuals. More often, the caster has no control whatsoever of the view and must create the cast using the player camera (e.g. the camera view used by the player at any given moment), which is very difficult to watch. Viewers watching action directly from the game (e.g. without a caster) have no choice but to watch from one of the player cameras. Furthermore, another shortcoming of traditional game broadcasts is that the output is a standard video stream viewable on standard video players which do not have any ability to control cinematography or provide meaningful viewer feedback beyond ‘views’, ‘likes’ and comments.
The headings provided herein are merely for convenience and do not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the terms used. Like numbers in the Figures indicate like components.